BESAME MUCHO

Mexican baritone and actor. The female composer was also Mexican. Opening line came from Spanish opera Goyescas (1916) by Enrique Velasquez, more precisely from aria La Maja y el Ruiseñor (The Girl And The Nightingale), inspired by a painting of Francisco Goya (see footnote).

Goyescas was inspired by the paintings of Goya but didn't receive the success it deserved. The opera was created in Paris in 1914, but the première was cancelled when WW I broke out. So the creation was postponed and moved to the Metropolitan in New York, where it was first staged in 1916, with composer Granados and a cast of famous European singers. Their triumph was well deserved but short: on the way back their ship was torpedoed by the Germans along the coast of France. A few survived, but Granados sank like a stone. As paper money was a risky currency in war circumstances, he had been paid in full gold in America, which he probably kept around his waist.

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